Monthly Archives: November 2018

20 November 2018 – 16 February 2019
Braccio di Carlo Magno

An exhibition event that, after two years, once again brings two museum institutions together: the Tretyakov National Gallery in Moscow and the Vatican Museums.
Open to the public from Tuesday 20 November, and arranged in Bernini’s Braccio di Carlo Magno in Saint Peter’s Square, “Pilgrimage of Russian Art. From Dionysius to Malevich” closes the cycle that was opened by the exhibition “Roma Aeterna”, which from 2016 to 2017 hosted in the Russian gallery 42 works from the permanent collection of the Vatican Pinacoteca. If at the time it was an exceptional loan without precedent, today, in line with and continuing that successfully launched dialogue, the Muscovite gallery is responding with equal generosity by sending to the Vatican 54 works from the renowned Gallery and other Russian museums, many of which have never before left their usual locations.

The exhibition project is curated by Arkadi Ippolitov, Tatiana Udenkova and Tatiana Samoilova, with the ambitious aim of presenting the cultural and spiritual message of Russian art in the heart of the western Christian world because, as confirmed also by the director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta, “Beauty creates bridges, brings different cultures together and makes us all brothers. The successful artistic collaboration between the Vatican and Russia continues today with another exchange – a bridge, in fact – that will enable many visitors to the Vatican to appreciate great Russian painting spanning over six centuries”.
The promoters of the exhibition, aside from the Vatican Museums and the Tretyakov Gallery, are the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, with the generous support of Alisher Usmanov’s Art, Science and Sport foundation.

Thursdays in the Museumsthis 6 December is an unmissable appointment for scholars and for all the public interested in the Etruscans and their world. The focus of the meeting is indeed the presentation of “Etruscology”, the volume in English edited by Alessandro Naso for the De Gruyter publishing house and dedicated to current knowledge of Etruscan civilization: culture, history, religion, society, language and economics, without neglecting topography and relations in the Italic peninsula and in the Mediterranean. The work has the dual aim of presenting an up-to-date overview of this ancient people and of constituting an international point of reference for etruscological studies.

The speakers at the meeting will be Professor Giovanni Colonna, former ordinary professor of Etruscology at the “La Sapienza” University of Rome and member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, and Professor Christopher J. Smith, professor of ancient history at the Scottish University of Saint Andrews and former director of the British School at Rome in the years 2009-2017.
The interventions will be introduced by the Director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta, and by Maurizio Sannibale, curator of the Department of Etrusco-Italic Antiquities. The meeting will also be attended by Alessandro Naso, editor of the volume, and Serena Pirrotta, editorial director for Studies in Classics and Philosophy of the De Gruyter publishing house.

On Saturday November 10, Italian & International Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums visited the Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi, in Rome.

In the eleventh century various Basilian monks created a monastery in the Forum of Augustus, using the temple for worship and dedicating it to St. Basil.

On the left Sabrina Zappia, Chapter Leader of the Italian & International Patrons Chapter

In 1230 the entire building was incorporated into a property of the Knights of the Hospital Order of St. John of Jerusalem, also named “of Rhodes” and “of Malta“. In 1466, under prior Roman of the Order, Cardinal Marco Barbo, nephew of Paul II, the property underwent major renovations. It was on this occasion that the façade was built overlooking Piazza del Grillo with a large arch surmounted by a cross-shaped window and a beautiful five-arched loggia richly decorated, and from which, in the 15th century, the pontiff faced the crowd during blessing.

The building preserves the church of San Giovanni Battista, obtained from the atrium of a Roman house. The Group visited the Palatine Chapel, built between the remains of ancient Roman structures and large halls with antique wooden ceilings, precious frescoes, sculptures, paintings of various eras and furnishings.

In addition, two special rooms were opened to the Group by spercial permit: the Antiquarium of the Church of San Giovanni Battista, Patron

Saint of Knights, in the atrium of a Roman residence, and the Sala Bizantina.

At the end of the visit, Patrons visited the eight-arched loggia overlooking the Roman Forum, decorated with frescoes, that are unfortunately very deteriorated due to exposure to atmospheric agents. These depict medallions with emperors and landscapes populated by plants and animals of different species attributed to artists of the circle of Andrea Mantegna.

15 November | 16 November 2018
Vatican Museums | MAXXI

The architectural and artistic testimonies of the churches of Rome in the last fifty years, from the crucial 1968 to today, constitute the thematic cornerstone of the two days of the coference “Roma 1968-2018: arte sacra e spazi di culto” (Rome 1968-2018: religious art and places of worship), to take place on 15 November in the Vatican Museums and on 16 November at MAXXI in Rome.

The meeting, curated by Teresa Calvano and Micol Forti, is promoted by the Vatican Museums in collaboration with ANISA (National Association of Art History Teachers) and MAXXI (National Museum of 21st Century Arts), and will enable scholars of the history of architecture, art and the Church to explore issues relating to architecture and religious art, starting from the relationship between liturgy and the arts as considered by the Vatican Council II (1962-1965) – the first important opening of the Church to contemporary art – and its subsequent developments and applications.

Masterpieces throughout the Vatican Museums

9 November 2018 – 9 March 2019
Vatican Museums

A “journey within the journey” along the entire Vatican Museums tour itinerary, a “dispersed” exhibition that from 9 November will open its doors to celebrate the great German scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann, father of modern archaeology and precursor of today’s art historians.
Preceded and already announced in May in the study day on the Montalto Collection in Villa Negroni, “Winckelmann. Masterpieces throughout the Vatican Museums” is the exhibition of the year that symbolically brings to a conclusion the many initiatives intended to render homage to the renowned archaeologist in the dual anniversary – 300 years since his birth, and 250 since his tragic death in Trieste.

In the years of his “dazzling” stay in Rome (1755-1768), the Vatican Museums as we know them did not yet exist, but Winckelmann already visited the Vatican Belvedere and returned repeatedly to admire the statues conserved there. Indeed, it was due to his favourable judgement that many antiquities that he studied during his visits to the monuments and collections of the Eternal City were then purchased by the pontiffs. The exhibition, curated by Guido Cornini and Claudia Valeri, is intended to highlight precisely this role of the Vatican collections as a cornerstone for the studies, theories and writings of the renowned German archaeologist. All sectors of the museums have been involved in this impressive and original exhibition project that offers the visitor a thematic itinerary with several pauses for in-depth analysis, 50 to be precise, corresponding to the 50 selected works – and valued graphically and in terms of content – on the basis of the role Winckelmann attributed to them in the construction of his aesthetic thought.

Room XVII of the Pinacoteca was instead dedicated to the presentation of the figure and his age. The screening of a film and the display of some of his most important writings help to understand better the atmosphere and cultural climate that characterised the city of Rome around the mid-eighteenth century. Winckelmann arrived in 1755 for a brief stay and instead spent the rest of his life in Italy, enchanted by the grandiose beauty of the antiquities: he devoted all his attention and prodigious talent to them.

In the niche of the short corridor that unites the Baptistery of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Wallswith the room dedicated to Gregory XVI, there is a beautifully resorted fresco depicting St. Paul. The work is attributed to Antonio di Benedetto degli Aquili, better known as Anonianzzo Romano.

The elegantly coffered vault across from the aforementioned fresco is also decorated with brightly colored frescoes. At the base of the vault and along the perimeter of the niche, there is a grotesque frieze featuring fantastical animals interspersed with small palm trees. This roman ornamentation is decorative and demonstrates a typical the Italian Renaissance (XV-XVI century) pictorial practice.

The vault was most likely painted after the fresco of the saint because of its style and the quality of the frieze connected to it, which is more consistent in painted layers and uses more vibrant colors. The vault also appears to be of a different craftsmanship.

Coffered Vault Frieze

Niche Frieze with St. Paul

State of Conservation

The frescoes were seriously damaged by the separation of painted plaster from the wall structure, and the entire surface was at risk of an imminent fall. The separation also caused grave fractures, concentrated for the most part in the area on the top of the vault and in the center of the niche with the saint.

It was discovered that the frescoes had been restored already, and some parts were previously heavily reconstructed with substantial stucco work and pictorial remakes. In the niche fresco, the layers of colors were in some cases not cohesive.

The green background and the Saint’s yellow vestments showed signs of a significant loss of pigment exacerbated by the separation phenomenon. In the past, the painting had been treated with reviving and consolidating substances, which over time chromatically altered the substances, making them opaque and aesthetically spoiling the representations.

Abrasions and scratches were particularly evident and widely diffused, appearing most evidently on the niche’s green background. Dust and surface deposits covered the decorations extensively.

Stuccoing and Reconstruction

Abrasion on green background

Abrasion on St. Paul’s yellow vestments

Techniques of Execution

The direct incisions and compass marks for the design at the base of the vault.

The paintings, as already said, were done in fresco. The niche with the figure of St. Paul was executed with two coats of plaster, one for the saint for whom the Basilica is named and another for the rest of the green background.

Using a technique of indirect engraving i.e. tracing the contours of the figures and internal details, a cardboard inversion of the wall was created. The saint’s halo and the circular knob of the sword’s hilt were drawn with a compass, and a straight edge was used to draw the edges of the blade. There are no traces of incisions or linear transcription on the face and hands, which means the contours were likely delineated with a carbon dust technique and then covered with color. There are very thin but clearly defined direct etchings present on frieze that decorates the lower register of the niche.

Traces of sixteenth-century painting underneath layers of paint

The vault was painted on three segments of plaster, applied along the corridor. The profiles of the coffers were traced with direct incisions while the central rosettes were made with a carbon dusting technique. Traces of the lines used to determine the general design were also detected impressed in the plaster. The small studs, painted on the white segments of the coffers, were formed with a compass. There are no signs of graphic construction i.e. incisions or traces of dust present on the lower frieze, but this is believed to be due to the thickness of the paint layers obscuring this area.

Stratigraphic tests on the vertical walls revealed the presence of painted decorations similar to those of the vault covered by more modern coloring. During a recent meeting of Museum Direction, it was decided to remove the modern additions and bring the original paintings to light.

Scientific Studies

The Vatican Museum’s Diagnostic Laboratory for Conservation and Restoration completed the following scientific studies prior to the restoration:

UV fluorescent imaging

Infrared false-color imaging

IR reflectography taken with a digital camera

Geo/Radar structural detection

The UV fluorescent and Infrared false-color images made it possible to precisely determine the presence of retouches and other substance applied during previous restorations (e.g. fixatives) as well as original finishes applied as lacquers on a dry surface. The IR Reflectography gave clear indications of the foundational designs for the figure of St. Paul, and Geo/Radar Detection determined that there are no dangerous static disruptions, even near the plaster fractures.

Digital Photo

IR Reflectography

Infrared false color Image

UV image

Photo Documentation

The Vatican Museum’s Photographic Archive completed a photographic documentation of the restoration for each of the phases (before, during, and after). The photos were taken with a digital camera.

Graphic Documentation

The work was graphically documented by hand, recording on paper the relative state of the painting’s conservation and techniques used in previous and current restorations. This information will then be digitized using AUTOCAD 2014.

The Restoration Process

The most urgent problem to confront was the painted plaster detaching from the wall structure. First, the parts in danger were “bandaged” using cotton gauze sheets painted onto the surface with lycraine-diluted Cyclododecane (1:1 ratio). The surfaces not covered by the bandages were protected with a layer of Cyclododecane, diluted in 20-40% Ligroin and applied by brush before the restoration work continued.

The restorers then moved on to filling in the gaps proceeding from the bottom to the top. In the thinner cavities, an acrylic resin diluted in water at various percentages was injected (ACRILEM IC 33) while the larger cavities were filled with a pre-mixed hydraulic mortar fluid (LEDAN SM02). To avoid unsecured plasters from falling during the consolidation, the surface was supported with precautionary props. The work yielded very satisfactory results as the plaster is now restored and firmly anchored to the wall structure.

After the re-adhesion of the detached plaster, the fresco surface was consolidated and the color degradation was addressed. The latter involved soaking especially deteriorated areas with algae. In some cases, restorers also used Paraloid B72 diluted to 3% in acetone.

Restorers applied a paper pulp compress soaked in an ammonium carbonate saturated solution to clean the frescoed surfaces. A sheet of Japanese papers was placed between the fresco and the layers of solution soaked paper pulp. Each compress was applied for 10 minutes on average so as not to damage the image. The more stubborn dirt was then removed using Ammonia suspended in a gel (Carbopol).

Cleaning of the fresco surface

Before & After cleaning

The gaps and fractures in the stuccowork were filled with a mortar made with lime putty, pozzolan, quartzite and marble powders. The very thin fractures were addressed with a ready-made filler (Modostuc).

The entire image was reintegrated using watercolor. In a few cases, however, a titanium white powder was added to the watercolor to lighten some of the stains on the green background.

Before

After

The fractures on the disfigured face of St. Paul were filled and reintegrated with watercolor restoring the image to its original integrity.

Before

After

The assistance of Angela Cerreta (cleaning, grouting and retouching) and Federica Cecchetti (retouching) was integral during the final phases of the restoration. The apprentice Giorgia Donadio also participated in all of the stages of work (consolidation, cleaning, grouting and retouching), while the apprentice Ilaria Liguori helped in the final stages of the retouching.